noon, as we had heard no noise above us, the Duke and my mother thought
we might look out to see if any one were about. This, as I shall tell
you, proved a sad business, and had like to have caused our ruin. But
of this later.
"The Duke went up the stair, and with difficulty lifted the trapdoor so
as to see a little. As no one was in sight, he heaved off the staves my
father had cast down, and at last got himself out into the upper cellar.
Then he went thence into the plant-house and garden, and at last boldly
entered the house, in which was no one, as it had been closed, and, as
we learned long after, the seal of the Republic put on the door. In a
half hour the Duke returned and took me back into the house, whence we
carried a number of things much needed in our cave, such as more
candles, and a blanket or two, although this was chiefly for precaution,
since the cellar was never cold, nor, as I think of it, damp. We
hurried back, and as we did so I asked the Duke about my father. But
neither he nor my mother could tell why he had been arrested, as he had
managed to keep in good relations with some of the Jacobins. It was
quite common to hear of the head of a house being arrested, and then,
within a day or two, of the women being likewise hurried to the common
fate which awaited all suspects. The Duke seemed to think my father
might have had some such fear for us, and desired to put us all in
safety, although how in the end this could be of use did not seem very
clear.
"When we all got back to the cave and had shut the trap, I sat a long
while much oppressed in my small mind; but so, too, were our elders, I
fear. As to this my Duke here, he cried a little, but not so that any
one knew but myself.
"In this way four miserable days and nights went by, and, thus
imprisoned, we knew not what to do. We had waited long, hopeful of my
father's return, and, _mon Dieu!_ he came not at all. The Duke was for
going forth again at night and some way escaping alone, fearing that to
be caught in our company might more surely bring us into trouble when at
last we should be forced, soon or late, to come out to the light.
Meanwhile, this blackness, for it was not mere darkness, became more
terrible than I can make any one comprehend. As I remember, there were
long talks of what to do, with vain endings, and, in between, great,
awful silences."
"I used to get frightened then," said the Duke, looking up from the
fire. "One seemed so absolutely alone. I used to resist for a time,
and at last put out a hand to take hold of your mother's skirt for
company. Once or twice the poor baby screamed so loud that he had to be
kept quiet by a little _eau de vie_, lest some one coming overhead
should hear; for, indeed, in this vault his cries seemed like shouts,
and one heard better because one could not see. Do you remember that,
Des Illes? But I used to wish that baby would cry all day."
"Do I remember? Yes, indeed. Those were not days or things to be
easily forgotten. But to go on. The fifth day, when we were all of us
becoming distracted, a thing took place which settled some of our
doubts. It may have been about six o'clock in the evening when we heard
faint noises in the upper cellar. The Duke was first, I think, to
notice them; then a footfall passed over the trap, and this was only too
plain. The Duke caught my arm and said quietly, 'Come here,' and so
saying, drew me to the foot of the stone stairs. This was about, as you
know, ten feet high. I could see nothing, but I heard his step as he
went up. Then he said, 'Here is a pistol. Be ready to hand it to
me--so--so; do not let the powder fall from the pan. I have one pistol.
If there are two men and you are quick, these will suffice. If there
are three men, we are lost.' It was dark as I stood, for we never used
candles save when we ate, and to quiet the baby. I reflected quickly
that, as the Duke could not have put back the staves, they who were
searching must easily find the trap; and so it was, for just as he said
softly, 'Keep still every one,' the trap was lifted a little and a ray
of blinding candle-light shot through the narrow space. For a moment I
could see nothing because of the glare. Then the trap was carefully
raised still higher, and we saw the figure of a kneeling man sustaining
the door with his left hand. In the other he held a lantern and a
canvas bag. Luckily for us all, the Duke was a person of calm courage.
He had seen that the stranger was not an agent of police. 'If you move,
you are dead,' he cried, and the muzzle of a pistol on the man's breast
made him for the time motionless, and perhaps quickened his wits, for he
exclaimed: 'Great heavens! I am not a municipal. God forbid. I am
only a thief. Be merciful, sir. I entered the house by a window, and
now the officers have come in by a door and I shall be guillotined as an
aristocrat.'
"'A pretty tale; I have half a mind to kill you,' said the Duke.
"'Pray the Lord keep the other half!' cried the thief.
"Upon this I heard my mother exclaim: 'No, no; let him come down.'
"'If you fire, I shall be dead, but your pistol will call these
scoundrels. I have stolen only this bag of gold. Take it, sir. So
saying, he let it fall on the head of this our Duke Henri, who, having
crept near to listen, set up a dismal howl, because of the weight of a
hundred gold louis.
"I heard the Duke, his father, call out, 'Idiot, hold your tongue! The
animal is right. Come down, you rascal. I would not deny the foul fiend
a refuge from these villains.'
"'Sir, you will never regret this good deed,' said the thief, and
instantly two long legs were through the opening, as I stepped down to
make way for our new lodger. The Duke was about to close the trap when
the thief said, 'Permit me, sir,' and set about cleverly arranging the
staves on the half-closed trap-door, in order that, as he let it fall,
they might cover it at least in part.
"After this he descended, and, bowing in an awkward way, said, 'I am
your humble servant, Madam'; and to the Duke, 'You have saved my life.
It is a cheap article nowadays, but still--'
"'Enough, master thief; here am I, the Duke de St. Maur, and Madame, my
friend's wife, and the baby, and these boys. Put out your lantern. God
knows when we shall get out, or how this adventure will end; but, until
it is over, you are a stranger within our gates, and we will feed you
while our food lasts.' It seemed to me queer to be so near to a thief,
but I heard my mother say something, and some one muttered an 'Ave'; it
might have been the thief.
"After a little, the Duke asked him a question as to how he entered our
house, and then my mother inquired if he had seen my father. He seemed
a merry fellow, our thief, and so well pleased to be cared for and let
live that by and by he laughed outright until the Duke bade him have a
care. Nor was this at all a needless caution, because the next day,
quite early on the sixth morning, we could too easily hear feet above us
on the floor of the wine-vault. I heard the Duke's 'Hist!' and we were
all as still as mice, except that the Duke, as before, gave me a pistol
and went up the ladder to be ready. I, following him, waited a little
further down. It must have been that they were making free with the
wine, because some of it was spilled and ran through the trap and down
my neck. It quite scared me, but in peril and in darkness a little
thing will do that. One man fell over the staves, but, as the Duke told
us later, he swore as if hurt, and so, I fancy, did not chance to see
our trap-door. All day long we prayed and listened and watched. When,
at nightfall, all sounds were over, we resolved that the Duke should
take a look outside, not knowing what to do or how otherwheres to find
an exit we might think to use."
"And then," said the Duke to Des Illes, as he paused in his story.
"Ah me! and then,--you remember."
"Remember? I shall never forget it,--the trap could not be moved! When
this dreadful thing was discovered, both our thief and the Duke got up
high on the ladder, and, with heads on one side and heaving with their
shoulders, failed to open it. It was quite in vain. The thief, as
usual, took a gay view of the situation. They have, said he, rolled a
cask of wine on to the trap. They will drink it up, or steal it by the
gallon, and when the cask is lighter we can heave it off, or--'
"'Thou art a merry sinner,' said the Duke, and even my mother laughed,
and we boys. The gay noise came back dismally, thus bottled up in the
narrow vault. But when we began to reflect, we knew that we were buried
alive. Our thief had no end of schemes. We would bore through the door
with an auger, and then bore into the barrel and let the wine run out.
'But we have no auger,' said the Duke, 'and the door is covered with
sheet-iron.' 'No matter, he would think; if he walked, he could think
better,' and so he moved to and fro awhile in search of wisdom.
"By this time, because our young stomachs began to cry out, we lit a
candle, and my mother gave us all our portions, while I sat on the
ladder top so as to hear if any one came. For a little while we were
strangely cheerful, and this I saw happen whenever we lit up our vault.
The baby smiled, and we moved about and made believe it was a small
matter, after all. As for our thief, he was a treasure of queer
stories, and you could not help but laugh, even if you were desolate the
minute after.
"Our thief had made ready his lantern, and, as I said, began to prowl
about into corners, and at last stumbled over our Duke's legs.
"'_Diable!_' cried the Duke. 'Put out your light; we have few enough
candles; and keep quiet, too. You are as uneasy as a cat of the
streets.'
"'And I am but a street cat, Monsieur, and have wisdom enough to know
that the lazy eat no mice.'
"'I don't see how your stumbling about this cellar will help us or you.'
"'Who knows, Monsieur? When you are in a scrape it is never well to keep
quiet. I have been in many, and worse than this--perils by sea and
land, and rope--I always get out, but--Ah me, to forget them is not
easy.'
"'Rope!' said the Duke. 'Indeed--'
"'Yes; they hang a fellow for so little, nowadays. You will permit,
Duke, that I change the conversation; I avoid it usually. Indeed, I am
careful not to tie my cravat too tight; it gives one a turn sometimes--a
sort of prophetic hint.'
"'You are a droll devil,' laughed the Duke, 'and not bad company--where
you can't run away with a purse. Do as you like.'
"'Thanks, Monsieur,' said the thief, and with no more words resumed a
careful search, as it seemed to me, after nothing. Indeed, we young
fellows laughed as he looked under and back of the casks. 'It is good
to laugh,' he said, as we followed him about; 'but in my business, when
there is no profit to be had, it is well to cultivate one's powers of
observation.' After a while we tired of following him, and sat down;
but he continued his search among the cobwebs--of which, trust me, there
were enough even in those days.
"At last I saw him mount on top of some empty barrels at the far end of
the cave. Unable to see behind them, he lowered his lantern between the
casks and the wall of the cellar, and looked. Of a sudden he scrambled
down and cried, waving his lantern: 'A thief for luck! A thief for
luck!'
"'What! what!' exclaimed the Duke, rising. As to the thief, he knelt
down at my mother's feet and said, looking in her face: 'Madame, God has
sent you this thief to show you a way out of this grave.' My mother
caught his arm and cried, 'Let this jesting cease.' He answered, 'I do
not jest,' and we all leaped up and came to where he knelt.
"'What is this?' said the Duke; on which our thief turned to the end of
the vault and quite easily spun aside two of the casks.
"'Look!' he said. To our surprise, there were several boards set
against the wall, and between their joinings came a current of air which
flared a candle-flame. 'There is a space beyond,' said the Duke. 'Is it
the catacombs? And was this vault a part? See the masonry here, and
over it these boards nailed fast into the cracks.' 'Horrible!' cried my
poor mother. I had heard that all of the contents of the Cemetery of
the Innocents had been tumbled into some of the openings of these
catacombs. '_Mon Dieu_,' I cried; 'they are full of the dead!'
"'It is the live rascals I care not to meet,' laughed the thief; 'as for
the dead, they are dead. All their wants are supplied. They neither
steal nor kill--and there are ways out--ways out--I am sure.'
"'Pray God, my good thief, that it may be as you say,' said my mother;
'but _mon Dieu!_ one may wander far, they say, in these old quarries.'
'Let us see,' said the thief, and with a strong hand he tore away board
after board, the rusted nails breaking and the rotten wood falling at
his feet. There, before him and us, was a great, dark gap in the wall.
Our thief held his lantern within it.
"'I see little; there is a descent. I must go and find out.'
"'Oh, be careful! You may fall--may die,' said my mother.
"'You have said that, Madame, which would send me smiling on a worse
errand. Since I was of this lad's bigness, no one has so much as cared
if I lived or died. I was a mere dog of the streets whom all men
kicked.'
"'Poor fellow,' said my mother. 'We are alike of the company of
misfortune, and perhaps from this day you may forever turn from evil.'
"'Let us waste no more time,' said the Duke; 'but have a care, or we
shall lose you.'
"'If he had a long string which he might unroll,' said I. 'I saw that in
a book.'
"'Good,' said the Duke, 'if we had it; but we have not.'
"'But we have,' said the thief. 'Here is Madame's knitting-ball. The
lad shall hold the end, and I shall be the fish at the other end, and
unroll it as I go.'
"Upon this, I, very proud, was given the end to hold, and our thief took
his lantern and went on, we watching him until the light was lost
because of his turning a corner. He might have been gone half an hour
when he came back. My mother said to him: 'We feared for you. And now,
what is your name? For if out of jest we have called you Mr. Thief, that
is not to be done any more.'
"Upon this he said his name was Francois, and that in the catacombs he
had gotten into a labyrinth of wet passages and seen no light anywhere.
'Indeed,' he said, 'if we venture in and lose power to come back whither
we started, we may never get out alive. What with the bewilderment of
many crossings, underground ways, and the armies of rats, it is a mad
resort.' This notion of the rats, I confess, made me quail. So the end
of it was that our new hope became but a new despair. _Mon Dieu_! 'T is
a long tale."
Both Pierce and I declared our interest, which was in truth real, and he
went on.
"The coming of the seventh day still found us reasonably well
provisioned, and our elders discussing ways of escape, but finding none
available. About noon of this day occurred an event which put an end to
these discussions. All the morning there had been noises overhead, and
we were kept in continual alarm. At last they were heard just over the
trap, and we began to hope they were moving the cask. This, indeed, was
the case. They made a great racket. To us underneath, the sounds above
were such as to make us wonder what they could be doing. I suppose it
was all caused by rolling the full barrels about to get at the bungs.
After a while it ceased; but in an hour or so the Duke cried: 'On guard!
Be ready! Quick, my other pistol!' As he stood he had now one in each
hand. Instantly the trap was pulled up without hesitation or caution.
There were several lighted candles standing on the barrels, and thus I
saw, stooping over the opening, lantern in hand, a big municipal guard.
Instantly there was the flash and roar of the Duke's pistol, and the
huge brute, with a cry, pitched head down into the open trap. He rolled
off the Duke's shoulder, and as he tumbled over on to me, I half fell,
half leaped, and he came down with an awful crash, his head striking the
floor of stone. As he fell the thief threw himself upon him. My mother
cried, '_Mon Dieu!_' There was a pause--when the thief called out, 'He
is dead.' As he spoke I ran up the stone stair, too curious to be
afraid, and peeped under the Duke's left arm. The smoke was thick, and
I saw nothing for a moment. Then a second officer ran down the stone
steps of the upper cellar and drew a pistol. He had a large lantern,
and as he turned it on us the Duke fired. I saw the man's right arm sink
and the pistol drop; and now a strange thing happened. For a moment the
man stood leaning back against a great cask. The hand in which he
clutched the lantern shook violently as with a spasm. '_Diable_! That
is strange,' cried the Duke. As I stood beside him in fear and wonder,
the wounded officer swayed to the left, and I heard a gurgling noise and
saw rush out under the man's arm a great gush of red fluid--as it seemed
to me blood. Then of a sudden the man doubled up and came down in a
heap on the floor. I heard him groan piteously.
"Cried the Duke, 'Stay there.' This was to me. 'Be still, all of you.'
Indeed, I had no mind to move; one dead man above and one below were
guards enough. The Duke went by the municipal without more than a look,
saying, as he set foot on the upper stair, 'I have shot that man and the
wine-barrel too. _Sacre bleu_, what a waste!' So it was good Bordeaux,
and not blood. This reassured me. In a minute more I heard the Duke say
cheerfully: 'All goes well. A lantern, quick! There is no one else.'
"Our thief was ready in a moment, and the two, with my small person in
the rear, turned to consider the Jacobin. 'Dead, I think,' said the
Duke. 'And if not, it were wise to attend to his case,' said our thief.
'No, no,' I heard my mother cry from the top of the staircase; 'we will
have no more bloodshed.'
"Neither Duke nor thief said anything in reply, but laid the man in as
easy a posture as could be found for one with an ounce of lead clean
through him. After this they went down to look at the other officer. He
was past doubt, and dead enough. 'And now,' said the Duke, 'even if we
bury these two, which Madame makes impossible, other devils will infest
the house, and in a few hours we shall be one and all lost to hope.'
"'There are the catacombs,' said the thief, 'and nothing else. The
sooner we leave, the better our chances. No one will follow us,
Monsieur.'
"'But shall we ever get out of these caves?' said my mother.
"'To stay is certain death,' returned Duke Philip.
"'And to fly by that great opening uncertain death,' said the thief. 'I
like better the uncertain.'
"'We will go,' said my mother.
"Upon this the Duke bade us carry the utmost loads of wine and eatables
we could support. The thief packed baskets, and strung bottles of wine
and milk on cords so as to let them hang from our shoulders. Each had
also a blanket, and we were thus pretty heavily loaded, but the thief
carried nearly as much as all the rest together. The Duke sat down a
little while to reload his own arms and those taken from the dead guard,
and soon we followed one another through the great black hole in
mournful procession. With one dim lantern flashing cones of light here
and there on the dripping, moldy walls, we went down a slope and along a
tunnel not broad enough for two to walk abreast. At the first halt I
saw my mother whisper to Duke Philip, and soon after he gave to our
thief the sword and pistol of the dead guard. Before and behind us was
darkness. We may have gone two hundred yards, the Duke urging haste,
when we came to a sharp turn in the tunnel, and stopped as if of one
accord.
"The Duke cried, 'Forward! March, boys! A fine adventure, is n't it?'
His cheerfulness put spirit into us all, and even the baby gave a little
laugh, as if pleased; but why babies laugh no man knows, nor woman
either. As for the Duke, he nor we had the least idea of where we were
going. As we started down the long stone corridor, the thief cried out,
'Wait a little. I am a fool! A thief of my experience not to know
better! Ye saints! An empty bottle is not more stupid!'
"'Hold!' cried the Duke, as the thief darted back up the tunnel.
"'Yes, Monsieur.' But our thief made no pause, and was heard running
madly along the stone passage out of which we had just turned.
'_Peste!_' said the Duke. You will never see that rascal again. He
will buy his own neck with ours. We shall do well to push on and leave
no traces behind us.'
"'No,' said my mother, as we stood staring after the man. 'I know not
why he went, but he will come again.' And so we waited, and some
fifteen minutes went by. At last said Duke Philip, impatient, 'Did any
one ever trust a thief, Madame? Pray remember at least that I am free
from blame.' He was vexed.
"'A thief has been trusted before,' said my mother, in her quiet way.
"'That was for the next world, not this one. We shall regret.'
"'No,' laughed the dear lady; 'for here he is, Duke.'
"He came in quick, almost breathless haste, and hardly able to say, 'Oh,
it was worth while, Madame. I have the bag of gold we left, and that
brigand's clothes. That I should have left a bag of gold! I of all
men!'
"'_Diantre!_' cried the Duke. 'What do you want with the clothes? Are
we about to start a rag-shop? Come, we have lost time!'
"I heard our thief mutter as he fell in at the rear of the line, back of
us boys: 'He has no imagination, that Duke. He would make no figure as
a thief. _Mon ami!_' (that was to me), 'do you know the toughest job in
the world?'
"'No,' I said, laughing.
"'To undress a gentleman who has departed this life. He does n't give
you the least assistance.'
"I stumbled on, and was thinking over this queer statement when the Duke
halted us in a broader place whence three stone passages led off at
various angles.
"'A _carrefour_, and which to follow?' said the thief.
"'It cannot matter much,' returned the Duke. I thought he did not like
the thief's assuming to take part in our counsels. Just then a
tremendous noise like thunder broke over us, and rumbled away in strange
echoes down the stone alleys before us.
"'Ye saints!' cried my mother, as a yet louder thunder resounded. 'What
is that?'
"'We are under a street,' said our thief. 'It is the noise of wagons.'
"'That might be a guide,' said my mother.
"'Of a truth, yes, Madame,' exclaimed our thief. But the Duke, taking
no notice, said, 'Let us take this road to the left.' The thief said
nothing, but shouldered his load, and we went on as before. It was no
time to argue; nor, indeed, did it seem to matter which way of the many
we chose, so we followed after our Duke, little conscious, we boys, of
the greatness of our peril. I suppose we must have gone for ten minutes
along a narrowing tunnel, when my mother called back to us to stop, and
the Duke said, 'We are in a wet place. But,' he added, presently, 'it
is not deep; let us go on,' and we started afresh.
"As we moved ankle-deep in water, a strange sound, like the fall of
something, broke out behind us, and a great rush of damp wind went by us
like a live thing.
"'Halloa!' cried our thief. 'Keep still!' and so saying, hid the lantern
under the skirt of his coat. I was dreadfully scared, for these dark
caverns were full of mysterious noises. As yet we had heard none like
this which now we heard. In the dark I seized the thief's coat-tail for
company. At intervals there were lesser noises, and when at last they
ceased, the Duke cried out, 'Heavens! What was that?'
"'I will see, Monsieur,' said the thief. 'I shall not go far.' This
time the Duke made no remonstrance. The thief was away not more than
five minutes. He left the lantern beside my mother.
"'Well?' said she, as he reappeared.
"'Madame,' he answered, the tunnel from the wine-cellar has fallen in: a
great tumble of stone fills up all the way.'
"'And to go back is impossible,' said the Duke.
"'Heaven has willed for us that we go on, and at least now no one can
pursue us,' said my mother.
"'That is so,' said the Duke; and we moved along, perceiving that the
way grew broader until we were standing in a space so great that no
walls could be seen.